Born Stockport, 18 April 1953.
Died Colchester, 14 February 2007.
English director.
He studied at Manchester Grammar School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, before joining ENO as a staff director in 1976, and later directed repertoire ranging from La Bohème to The Coronation of Poppea. From 1978 he worked regularly with Opera North, where his productions included Nabucco, La Bohème, Tosca, Cav and Pag, Werther, Der Freischütz, The Bartered Bride and Prince Igor. At Aldeburgh in 2000, he directed the premiere of Param Vir's Ion. He also worked with the Raymond Gubbay organisation, both with a large-scale Carmen at Earl's Court and the more intimate Savoy Opera season in 2004. His only production with Scottish Opera was The Pearl Fishers.
He also directed opera in Australia (Don Giovanni in Melbourne) and Israel (La traviata in Jerusalem, Eugene Onegin in Tel Aviv). European engagements included Macbeth (Hamburg), Samson et Dalila (Bregenz and Amsterdam), and Un ballo in maschera (Antwerp).
He worked extensively in musical theatre, directing West End productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Bombay Dreams. He also directed the National Theatre's staging of Sunday in the Park with George.
He first directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1991 (Julius Caesar), and worked there frequently in later years, as well as at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
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